Page 14 of Turning the Page with My Grumpy Boss

Tessa pumped her fist in the air in victory, “Yes! You willnotregret this, I promise. I can’t wait to read more! You have such a strong voice. So many authors struggle with making their prose distinct, but yours just… flows. It’s remarkable.”

“Alright, alright. No need to lay it on so thick. I already said yes. Now, get back to work,” Daniel nudged one of the coffee cups over to her.

She snatched up the offered coffee and beamed, “Aye, aye, captain!” With a mock salute, she bounded from the room, glowing with excitement.

Daniel stood there for a moment, alone with his thoughts.What have I done?

The rest of the day passed without further incident, though Tessa seemed in a particularly good mood. Daniel spent much of his shift organizing the shelves while Tessa saw to the customers. They worked well in tandem, and the day went by quickly. Martha stopped by toward evening to get some reading done away from her husband’s loud football game.

After bidding farewell to Tessa at the shift’s end, Daniel locked up the shop and leaned against the door. Had he really agreed to let Tessa read his manuscript?

Shaking his head, he went to the back office, deciding to print it out before he could rethink it. The more time he sat with the thought, the more likely he was to back out. And he found that he didn’t want to back out.

Martha was seated in the desk chair, a novel splayed out in her delicate fingers. She turned a page and quirked a brow, not looking up. “I figured you would have run upstairs to participate in your little end-of-day ritual.”

Daniel smiled and went to turn on the printer. “I’m just printing out some of my writing for Tessa to look over. She asked earlier.”

This got Martha’s full attention. Novel forgotten, she looked up with wide, knowing eyes, “Oh? Youneverlet anyone read your stuff. Not even me.”

He attempted a noncommittal shrug, “Yeah, well, I figured it was finally time.”

“Hm.” Martha clearly wasn’t buying that this was no big deal.

“Anyway, I’m just going to print what I have so far, and then I will be out of your hair,” he said, leaning over to press the power button of the printer.

As he waited for the printer to turn on and Martha went back to her book, Daniel considered what he’d said. Itwastime, but he found it strange that the first person he had chosen to share his work with was Tessa, of all people. Maybe it had been her enthusiasm. Maybe it had been something more.

Chapter seven

Tessaplacedanotherprintedpage face down on the checkout counter of the shop. She had been using the time between customers to catch up on Daniel’s book. It was good. It wasreallygood. His voice was strong, and his prose beautiful. However, she couldn’t help but think it was missing something.

As she scanned the next page, her fingers tracing the words, it struck her. The missing ingredient was emotional depth. The dialogue between the characters—and even the inner dialogue of the main character—fell flat because it didn’t speak to any hidden depths emotionally.

Picking up a red pen, she underlined a few lines, chewing on her lip as she edited. It didn’t exactly surprise her that Daniel the Grump struggled to be vulnerable on the page. It tracked. Still, without that vulnerability, his manuscript would suffer.

That is going to be a hard edit to give.Her brow creased as she tried to consider how best to leave the note. The red pen hovered over the page, and she let out an exasperated sigh. Perhaps she would just tell him in person.

Her eyes strayed to the closed door of the back office. Daniel was currently working on a shipment order. Books had been flying off the shelves lately as more and more townspeople arrived to test Tessa’s book recommendation abilities. They had been having to restock more and more frequently.

She shook her head, returning her gaze to the page. It was probably best to leave him be for now. Daniel had terrible tunnel vision when he was completing a task and hated interruptions.

Tessa tapped the pen against the counter as she thought about the book Daniel had written. It was actually a great story, full of creative ideas. The main character was a disgraced knight cast out of his kingdom. A curse left him trapped within his magical armor, and he was traveling the wilderness, searching for the cure.

Despite these struggles, the knight seemed wooden in how he addressed the emotional ramifications of the situation. There was no intensity, no real drive. He just went from one encounter to another with no real attachments or emotional depth.

With a frustrated sigh, Tessa set aside the document. She would approach these edits with Daniel when he re-emerged from the back office. He had been in there a while, so it was likely he would be wrapping up soon.

Almost as though she had summoned him, Daniel suddenly opened the door to the back office and stepped out. He caught her staring in his direction and smiled slightly. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he strode toward the checkout counter.

“I see you’re getting to work on my book.” His expression was hesitant yet hopeful.

Tessa gave him a teasing grin, “Already itching for my feedback, huh?”

He shrugged, acting unbothered by the anticipation, “You know if you have any. I would love to hear it.”

Tessa stopped to consider how best to do this. The friendship between her and Daniel had grown in the past few weeks, and she didn’t want to do anything that might jeopardize it. But on the other hand, she had a responsibility as his beta reader to offer constructive feedback. He wanted a chance to improve his manuscript, and it was only fair that she do all she could to help.

“Well…”

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